The Pearl of Virginity: Death as the Reward of Asceticism in Mēmrā 191 of Jacob of Serug
Robert A.
Kitchen
Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute
George A. Kiraz
James E. Walters
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Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute
2004
Vol. 7, No. 2
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https://hugoye.bethmardutho.org/article/hv7n2kitchen
Robert A. Kitchen
The Pearl of Virginity: Death as the Reward of Asceticism in Mēmrā 191 of Jacob of Serug
https://hugoye.bethmardutho.org/pdf/vol7/HV7N2Kitchen.pdf
Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies
Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute,
vol 7
issue 2
Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies is an electronic journal dedicated to the study
of the Syriac tradition, published semi-annually (in January and July) by Beth
Mardutho: The Syriac Institute. Published since 1998, Hugoye seeks to offer the
best scholarship available in the field of Syriac studies.
Syriac Studies
Jacob
Serug
Sarugh
memra
pearl
asceticism
virginity
death
bat qyama
daughter of the Covenant
File created by XSLT transformation of original HTML encoded article.
Jacob of Serug’s
mēmrā, “On the bat
qyāmā, a pure virgin, who departs from this
world,” appears to be a funeral oration written on the
death of a consecrated “daughter of the
Covenant.” Jacob counsels those mourning that death
is not the end, but the entrance into the angelic realm, the
reward for a life of asceticism, virginity, and devotion to
Jesus, the Īhīdāyā, her betrothed. The
metaphor of the pearl applied to her virginity illustrates how
she has ascended out of the iniquity of the world/sea to the
glory of heaven through the power of her virginity and
asceticism.
[1] Jacob of
Serug, the Flute of the Holy Spirit, played seemingly
innumerable tunes in dodecasyllabic meter, 763 verse homilies
by one count. His poetic mēmrē did not
pretend to an historical dimension, as did some of
Ephrem’s mēmrē. Best known for
his long Biblical expositions, Jacob also explored ascetical
themes frequently. This is the second paper examining
several of these ascetical mēmrē attempting
to reconstruct Jacob's theology of asceticism.
R. A. Kitchen, "A Practical Theology of Asceticism
in Jacob of Serug's mēmrē on the Solitary
Ones," presented at North American Patristics Society, Chicago,
May 2002.
[2]
Mēmrā 191 in Paul Bedjan’s
edition
Homiliae Selectae, vol. 5 (Paris, 1910),
edit. Paul Bedjan. Mēmrā 191: 821-836.
allows us to hear Jacob’s voice a
little more intimately. Not that this voice is absent from
700-odd other mēmrē, but here we have a good
idea of the occasion and environment to which his words were
addressed. The title is “Concerning the
bat
The feminine form of ‘bar’ is
written ‘bart’; however, the
rēsh is usually elided, resulting in the
pronunciation ‘bat’, which will be the
transliterated form used in the remainder of the article.
qyāmā, the pure virgin who
departs from this world.” It is a funeral oration,
addressed to the mourners of an exceptional, but anonymous,
consecrated virgin.
[3] That the
setting is funereal becomes clearer upon examining a later
document published recently by Sebastian P. Brock: the
“Order for the burial of bnāt
qyāmā, or the burial of nuns
(dayrāyātā) existing in a single
manuscript copied by a priest Joseph, presumably in Tur Abdin
in 1980.
Sebastian P. Brock, Burial Service for
Nuns (Mōrān ’Eth’ō 4;
Kottayam, India: St. Ephrem Ecumenical Research Institute,
1992).
Brock notes that the term bat
qyāmā in modern times often refers to the wife
or widow of a priest. Whether the bat
qyāmā had to be celibate, a virgin, still needs
to be examined. Lucas van Rompay has drawn attention to
the modifier “the pure virgin” in Jacob of
Serug’s title, which may indicate that the two statuses
are not equivalent. The use of the modern term
“nun”—a female monk—as a translation of
bat qyāmā may be too restrictive.
[4] With
such a late document, there is no way to determine whether the
original liturgy is preserved out of which context Jacob
wrote. Jacob clearly is referring to a virgin bat
qyāmā, so that the use of such a liturgy for
wives and widows of priests may be a development and adaptation
or simply a reflection of the broad definition of the
bnāt qyāmā. There is little
indication that the modern liturgy is not derived from one
intended for virgins. While Jacob does not directly follow
the sequence of the liturgy, there are echoes of the
terminology and themes of the liturgy embedded in his
mēmrā.
[5]
Unfortunately, the only place the technical term bat
qyāmā appears is in the title,
The same phenomenon occurs in an Armenian
translation of one of Ephrem’s hymns (number 46 in
Patrologia Orientalis 30.1, 214-217), translated into
English by Robert Murray, “‘A marriage for all
eternity’: the consecration of a Syrian bride of
Christ,” Sobornost/Eastern Churches Review 11
(1989) 65-69. Murray believes that the hymn refers to a
bat qyāmā, but the term or its Armenian
counterpart does not appear in the text.
and Jacob tells us
little to add to the profile of the bnāt
qyāmā. That a bat qyāmā
would be normally a virgin is no revelation, so we have to
listen a little more attentively to Jacob’s
characterization.
[6] Bedjan
utilizes a single manuscript, British Library Add.
14608,
William Wright, Catalogue of Syriac Manuscripts
in the British Museum, Vol II (London, 1882), p. 733,
DCCLXVI. Also cf. Arthur Vööbus, Handschriftliche
Überlieferung der Mēmrē-Dichtung des
Ja'qob von Serug
, vol. 1
(CSCO 344; Subsidia 39; Louvain, 1973) 52.
of 7th or 8th century provenance, that
contains a series of 14 mēmrē by Jacob (ff.
3a-69a). These mēmrē bear the common
thread and theme of death—funeral sermons for youth, a
priest, a meditation on death, and on the end of the
world. This cycle is enclosed by metrical discourses by
Isaac of Antioch on the plague in the days of King David (ff.
1-3a); a mēmrā by Ephrem on the
departed/dead (69a-72a); and five more discourses of Isaac of
Antioch on the death of youths, the evils of the world, life in
the time of plague, and on the rich of the world
(72b-96b). A single leaf from a mēmrā
by Jacob, probably entitled “On the Resurrection”
(f. 97), adds a theological punctuation to the contents of the
manuscript.
[7] Our
mēmrā, 11th in the series (40b-48a),
cf. Arthur Vööbus, Handschriftliche
Überlieferung der Mēmrē-Dichtung des
Ja'qob von Serug, vol. 2 (CSCO 345; Subsidia 40;
Louvain, 1973) 12. Vööbus has mistakenly dittoed the
fourth mēmrā, adding one more to
Wright’s list.
has
the title as listed in Bedjan’s edition. Consisting
of 319 lines,
822:6 is a single line unit.
it is of medium length for Jacob’s
mēmrē. The sense units are two-line
couplets of 12 syllables each, and the mēmrā
is divided into 10 sections of varying lengths.
Mēmrā 191: Concerning the bat
qyāmā
[8] Section
1. (821:4-822:8) Jacob declares immediately that this
occasion of a funeral is not tragic, but a time of celebration
and accomplishment. “Admirable is the departure when
it adorns itself gloriously/It is without suffering for whoever
lives prudently.:: Beloved is death when righteousness
accompanies it/It does not sadden him when it enshrouds a
person of God.::” (821:4-7) Aiming to dispel the
reputed power and finality of death, Jacob transforms it into
an anticipated entry into the kingdom of heaven.
[9] Jacob
establishes the metaphors that permeate the rest of the
mēmrā: the world is depicted as the
sea,
Cf. Burial Service for Nuns, First
Service, 7 [Syriac text: 6:1-2]
the traditional realm of chaos, in which
many evils churn like the waves. Death is a haven, a
sheltered cove, in which one finds protection from the
tumultuous waves and storms.
[10]
Alluding to the spices, oils, and flowers used to prepare the
body for burial, Jacob speaks of the sweet, but unnatural smell
all these foreign substances emit. “The supposed
fragrance from roots and from flowers/a foolish person smears
on, but he is not praised by wise ones.:: They know that
the good smell is not his own/but that of the oil that he is
anxious to acquire through his
licentiousness.” (821:16-19) The righteousness
of a person is like the smell of choice oil that is a true
natural odor of the person, far more pleasing to the wise and
discerning ones who surround her.
[11]
Section 2. (822:9-824:8) Jacob explains his reordering of
the sequence of authentic life. “The day of death is
better than the day of birth/Every discerning person looks
forward to death so that he may be victorious in it.::”
(822:9-10) When one is born, the mighty and evil are equal
with the weak and good—the proverbial clean
slate. But at death, one’s labor and valor are now
known, and for the good ones, “the beauty of their crowns
shines” (822:14).
[12]
Worldly possession is not equivalent to glory, for as everyone
knows you can’t take the former with you at
death. However, glory does accompany whoever acquires
it. There are different rules in play.
[13]
Section 3. (824:9-825:17) Jacob turns his attention directly to
the deceased. “The virgin who departed from within the
world to God/the day of her death was not controlled by
lamentations and weeping.::” (824:9-10)
[14]
Death ruins the hopes of those who become betrothed to others
in the world. No wonder, because when people love this
untrue, inauthentic world, they are disturbed and unsettled at
the thought of death and separation. Not so for the
virgin, Jacob declares, for she has betrothed herself to the
“faith of the Cross” (825:2)—an expression
utilized several times in the mēmrā as a
synonym for Christ. A banquet is prepared for her in the
other world; she is a bride in the realm of death.
Burial Service, First Service, 7
[Syriac, 6:5-7]
Yet this is not the realm of despair, and
anyone who weeps for her should be ashamed. There she will
receive the dowries of her betrothed, along with the ring that
his body and blood gave her. She leaps for joy in the
glory of her husband.
[15]
Section 4. (825:18-826:15) Because the virgin despised
transient rewards in this world the bridegroom rewards her in
the other world.
Burial Service, Third Service, part
Seven: Madrasha, 35 [Syriac, 34:17-22]
The watchers
(
c
ayrē) or angels are
rejoicing, for they witness that she despised intercourse on
account of her love for the Īhīdāyā, the Only Begotten.
[16]
Section 5. (826:16-829:6) The longest section fills out the
nature of this relationship. The virgin made a covenant
(qyāmā) with the Īhīdāyā who died for her sake,
and she wore on her forehead a sign of mourning, a rag of
passions (’ūrqactā dhashē), as do all the wise pure
maidens. Wearing black garments—the darkness of the
crucifixion and night—was a sign of the covenant
(qyāmā) of virgins who have betrothed
themselves to the “faith of the Cross.”
(827:7-8) “And like that day that became dark in
the crucifixion/She became dark so that she might also become
light through the Son in the new world.::”
(827:15-16)
[17] Upon
her departure/death she is able to finally see her betrothed in
whose name she had resided, and then her mourning subsided and
she put on the crown of glory and the garment of
light. She felt no pain in her death and spoke to one of
her mourners that she had escaped the evil world and had
reached the serene place.
[18]
Jacob revives the imagery of the world as the tumultuous sea.
The virgin ascended from the snares/nets of the world/sea, the
serpent whispering to her and laying traps for her, but she did
not become weak or listen.
Burial Service, Second Service, 29
[Syriac, 28:3-4]
The Īhīdāyā guarded her steps from
the murderer, and she crossed over the sea of evil passions and
death became a haven of rest from the waves.
[19]
Sections 6.-7. (829:7-830:10 & 830:11-831:14) The next
two sections both deal with the reception of the virgin by the
watchers or angels into their company. They rejoice in the
pearl (margānītā) that the virgin
brings to the royal bridegroom as a wedding gift. All the
heavenly host welcome her into their midst when the bridegroom
introduces her after she has defeated Satan through
virginity.
Burial Service, First Service, 11
[Syriac, 10:7-8]
[20] The
angels marveled at her virginity because her accomplishments
were similar to theirs. They perceived their own virginity
existing in an earthly being, and now she is like a relative or
neighbor to them, living ‘without
suffering/passion’ (lā hashshā) (831:14) in their ranks
forever.
[21]
Section 8. (831:15-833:6) Jacob expresses his own laments
and fears to the virgin. Your death is not like my
death. I am afraid to die. Yet Jacob knows the Lord
leads and guides her. “Death is bitter and sweet is
the smell of glory/but now I have both tastes from
you.:: When the bitterness of death wafts up to me from
your departure/may the sweet smell of your virginity perfume
and enclose me” (832:10-13).
[22]
Finally, he has recognized the effect of her
asceticism. “Resurrection renders death null and
void/and therefore, there is no way to bring your virginity to
naught” (833:3-4). Virginity is not just an earthly
trait; it is the status of the angels, and so is eternal in
nature.
[23]
Section 9. (833:7-834:19) The penultimate section is an
exhortation to those attending the funeral, probably many who
are bnāt qyāmā, that they may imitate
the departed’s example and so share her reward.
[24] When
her pearl is honored in the treasury of the king, it will bring
benefit to all who rejoice with her. The king guards the
good people who have died like treasures in a living storehouse
full of light. Like the virgin, righteous people pass from
struggle and fear in this world at their death to the wedding
feast of the king. Death is a place of comfort to the wise
virgins who are full of light and have oil for their lamps
(Matthew 25:1-13).
[25]
Section 10. (834:20-836:5) In this concluding
section, Jacob spells out the metaphor of the pearl of
virginity. Deep in the dark sea, no one knows about the
qualities of the pearl until it brought to the surface to
light. In this way, “the pearl depicts a type of
virginity
Ephrem utilizes the pearl as metaphor/type
in a series of the Hymns on Faith, commonly known as “The
Pearl.” Ephrem describes the origins of the pearl in
the sea, being given birth by a virgin mother in the bosom of
the sea who ‘knew her not.’ The pearl is then
addressed as “the exact type of the Only Begotten”
(Hymn 82.5). J. B. Morris, translator & J. Gwynn,
editor, Selections translated into English from the Hymns
and Homilies of Ephraim the Syrian and from the Demonstrations
of Aphrahat, the Persian Sage (Oxford, 1898).
/for the sea is the world and as long as the
pearl is in [the sea] its beauty is unknown”
(835:12-13). While in the evil world, the beauty of this
woman’s virginity is hidden, although the angels are
joyously aware of it.
[26] Two
trajectories are presented. At death the virgin ascended
from the world/sea and brought up with her the pearl just as a
diver might do from the darkness of the deep dark sea. Then in
reverse, death descends after her and makes her ascend to the
high places. Death has lost its sting and is now the agent
who brings the righteous to eternal life.
The Asceticism of Death
[27]
Alas, the funeral is over and we do not know as much as we
would like about the bnāt
qyāmā. However, Jacob has told us a great
deal about the context and nature of asceticism along the
way.
[28]
Asceticism as a form of death to this world finds the metaphor
fully realized in Jacob’s
mēmrā. Death is an act of grace-full
asceticism. As such, it is both an act of personal
effort—the virgin ascends from the world with the pearl
and attains the goal of death; and as the
reward—grace—when death descends to fetch
her. In several instances in the mēmrā,
death is personified as the benevolent agent of eternal
life.
[29] The
only ascetical discipline mentioned in the
mēmrā is virginity
(btūlūtā). This is the
renunciation of sexual intercourse, which is specifically
mentioned, but also implied is the renunciation of the various
evils of this world.
[30]
Physical, earthly virginity is a mirror image of the nature of
the angelic life. The angels are said to rejoice greatly over
our bat qyāmā because her virginity is so
similar to theirs in heaven (Luke 20:34-36). After
physical death, she is received into their company. Does
she become literally an angel in substance? Jacob does not
venture there, though I am not sure anyone has figured out the
precise dimensions of angelic life.
[31]
Nevertheless, she lives with the angels
eternally. “They exult in her and she rejoices with
them with their crowns/She lives without
suffering/passion (lā hashshā) forever among their
ranks.::” (831:13-14) The expression
“lā hashshā” is not the fuller term
lā hāshōshūtā—the Syriac
equivalent of apatheia—but it must reflect the
same state of mind and soul. Certainly, to possess
apatheia on earth is to anticipate the angelic status.
Our virgin now enjoys this blessed state eternally in the realm
of the Resurrection.
[32] The
famous pearl of great price (Matthew 13:45-46) for which the
merchant in the parable sold all he possessed to buy it ties
together the entire mēmrā. The pearl is
her virginity that she brings up from the dark sea of the evil
world, avoiding and eluding all the nets intended to entrap her
and her pearl, to present finally as a wedding gift—her
dowry—to her betrothed, Jesus the Īhīdāyā.
[33] By
Jacob’s funeral exhortations to the mourners, it is
apparent how important the concept of betrothal was to the
bnāt qyāmā. Virginity is, after
all, an act of renunciation, of not engaging in a certain
activity. The bnāt qyāmā actively
engage themselves in betrothal to the Īhīdāyā. Wearing black
clothes and the rag of passions on their foreheads are the
signs of their allegiance to the crucified Christ, as well as
anticipation of that day when they will be united to their
betrothed. Indeed, Jacob plays on the word
qyāmā several times to indicate that this
betrothal to the Īhīdāyā is the content of their
covenant. “She made a covenant with the
Īhīdāyā who
died for her sake/for she clings to him, there shall be no
other for her.::” (826:15-16)
[34] Once
the bride meets the bridegroom after death, he receives her
into all he has, places the crown of eternal light upon her
(825:20), and shares the wedding feast with her. While
Jacob is not explicit, could there now be a type of union with
the Īhīdāyā—“so they are
no longer two, but one flesh” (Matthew 19:6)?
[35]
Virginity as simple renunciation of sexual intercourse is not
mature asceticism. The bnāt qyāmā
utilize their virginity as signs of their betrothal to the Only
Begotten, an ascetical discipline that awaits fulfillment in
the next world, the place of death that contains the reward of
eternal union with the Īhīdāyā. Virginity is a
manner of death in the natural world, a negation of the cycle
of sexual relations and continuation of human life. This
turning upside down of human patterns results in another
reversal in the next world in which the virgin becomes
perfectly alive in the realm of death._______
Notes
“It is he who has granted you
to pass over the sea of sins (yamā dahtāhē) in purity.”
“The Royal Son has prepared for you
the bridal chamber (gnūnā dhatnā) on high;
enter it, sister, and find joy,
give thanks to him who has held you worthy to behold
him.”
“The virgin who rejected
the marriage crown which is subject to corruption
has gained the bridal chamber of the just
which the children of light yearn for.”
(addressed to Satan)
“Cunningly and clearly
you laid your snares (pahē)
in order to make humanity captive.”
“Lead her by the hand of the peaceful
angels to the blessed abodes of
your saints.”
Cf. also Edward G. Mathews, Jr., “St. Ephrem, Madrase
on Faith, 81-85: Hymns on the Pearl, I-V,” St.
Vladimir’s Theological Quarterly 38 (1994)
45-72.
Mathews offers a different translation of 82.5:
“Our Lord had siblings, yet He was without
siblings
for He is the Unique One, O singular one,
a great mystery whose unique type
you are. On a king’s crown
you have brothers as well as sisters.”
Robert Murray notes that the pearl is seen as the symbol
(rāzā) of virginity, as well as a title of
Christ. Cf. Robert Murray, Symbols of Church and Kingdom: A
Study in Early Syriac Tradition (Cambridge, 1975) 148,
359.
_______
Bibliography
Sebastian P. Brock, Burial
Service for Nuns (Mōrān
’Eth’ō 4; Kottayam, India: St. Ephrem
Ecumenical Research Institute, 1992).
Jacob of Serug, Homiliae
Selectae, vol. 5 (Paris, 1910), edit. Paul Bedjan.
Edward G. Mathews, Jr., “St.
Ephrem, Madrase on Faith, 81-85: Hymns on the Pearl,
I-V,” St. Vladimir’s Theological Quarterly
38 (1994) 45-72.
J.B. Morris, translator & J.
Gwynn, editor, Selections translated into English from the
Hymns and Homilies of Ephraim the Syrian and from the
Demonstrations of Aphrahat, the Persian Sage (Oxford,
1898).
Robert Murray, Symbols of Church
and Kingdom: A Study in Early Syriac Tradition (Cambridge,
1975).
—, “‘A marriage for
all eternity’: the consecration of a Syrian bride of
Christ,” Sobornost/Eastern Churches Review 11
(1989) 65-69.
Arthur Vööbus,
Handschriftliche Überlieferung der
Mēmrē-Dichtung des Ja'qob von Serug, vol. 1
& 2 (CSCO 344-345; Subsidia 39-40; Louvain,
1973).
William Wright, Catalogue of
Syriac Manuscripts in the British Museum, Vol II (London,
1882).